The one thing the new HOTA gallery lacks
The opening of the magnificent new HOTA Gallery looks like a masterstroke for the Gold Coast. But there's a surprising element missing, writes Keith Woods.
Opinion
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THE opening of the magnificent new HOTA Gallery looks like a masterstroke for the Gold Coast.
The city’s art collection finally has a worthy home. Major national and international exhibitions will come to this city. Local artists have a fantastic new opportunity to showcase their work.
But could it be that in making their masterpiece the city, well, missed a bit?
Despite the flurry of new interest in art, one of Australia’s longest running events, the Gold Coast Art Prize, is not making a return.
The Art Prize, at times also known as the Conrad Jupiters Art Prize and Drs Stan and Maureen Duke Gold Coast Art Prize, ran from 1968 until its final exhibition six years ago.
It gave enormous exposure to winning artists, locals included. The winner of the final prize, in 2015, was Tweed Heads artist Hiromi Tango.
For a time, council also ran the Gold Coast Indigenous Art and Design Awards.
Among the winners of the Indigenous Awards was Mudgeeraba artist Janelle McQueen, who won Best 3D Artwork in 2010 for her ceramic vase titled ‘Kangaroo Dreaming’.
Ms McQueen credits the win with kickstarting her career.
“Without the art and design awards I wouldn’t be the artist I am,” she said.
Since winning the award she has won work with Dreamworld, the Commonwealth Games and sports teams including the Gold Coast Titans.
Most recently, she designed the Brisbane Bullets Indigenous Round Jersey.
Your columnist caught up with her at the launch of the jersey at Rivermount College in Yatala last week, where she also works as Indigenous Liaison Officer.
“Because of that one art and design award I’ve built my business, I’ve worked as an Indigenous contemporary artist,” Ms McQueen said.
“... But the council doesn’t run even its mainstream arts awards any more.
“(The awards) started myself and a lot of artists off. Gave us that confidence.
“It gives you that bio to get started, that sort of first foot forward”.
There are other reasons to suspect a revival of the art awards could add yet more colour to the HOTA palette.
In Mudgeeraba, the annual d’Arcy Doyle Art Awards and exhibition has become a major fixture on the Australian art calendar.
“Over the two weeks that we run it now we get about six to seven thousand people through the Mudgeeraba Memorial Hall,” local councillor Glenn Tozer told this column.
“... The economic impact is really a big deal for our village. People come in, check out the art and dine out in one of our great restaurants. It’s a good time for them (the businesses) because it’s the middle of winter.”
Among the winners of the main $10,000 prize has been local artist Otto Schmidinger, who triumphed in 2013 with his landscape ‘The Logs’.
But it’s not just the winning artists that get a financial boost. Many of the paintings exhibited at the awards – which run this year from June 23 to July 4 – are sold to visitors.
Could something similar be created at the HOTA gallery, to the benefit of artists and local businesses? Could the Gold Coast Art Prize be revived in some form?
Mayor Tom Tate is not so sure.
“The Gold Coast Art Prize started as a way to create an art collection for the Coast,” he told this column.
“Today, we have 4500 works and a collection worth $32 million.
“HOTA does have an acquisitive prize, known as the Josephine Ulrick Win Schubert Photography Award. This has been on hold for the past two years while the Gallery was completed and will return in 2022-2023 with a prize of $25,000.
“This will continue to build what is becoming a nationally significant photography collection. Further, HOTA plans for the its current Solid Gold presentation to be a triennial exhibition, supporting more Coast artists than a prize would be able to.’’
All very admirable. But perhaps there is room for a little more.
One can certainly hope so. An awards program could bring this fine new public space yet more prestige and attention. It could be the final masterstroke.
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A well-known doodler by the name of Pablo Picasso once remarked that the “chief enemy of creativity is good sense”.
Perhaps this is why the denizens of Gold Coast City Council are such a creative bunch.
Who can forget the giant silver ferns, commissioned at great expense, which were to be installed four years ago in Surfers Paradise?
Actually, council can – they still languish in storage despite costing a six-figure sum.
Or the work of the Gateways Public Art Commission, which promised to deliver “iconic gateways to the Gold Coast that are as visually bold, expressive and memorable as the city itself” – and somehow ended up providing us an expensive jumble of malfunctioning light poles at Yatala.
The latest artwork promoted by council – a sculpture at the entrance to the new HOTA art gallery – is also proving controversial.
There is a common theme to all three pieces.
The ferns, reminiscent of the Kiwi national symbol, were designed and built in Cork, Ireland by a chap called Alex Pentek before being shipped to the Coast.
The Yatala lights were created by an Italian artist called Ada Tolla who lives and works in New York.
The HOTA sculpture is the work of Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran, a Sri Lankan-born artist who calls Sydney home. And as Mayor Tom Tate reminded us yesterday, despite its prominent place at HOTA, for some reason it was commissioned by the Melbourne Art Foundation.
There appears to be little clear link to the Gold Coast with any of them, bar the fact they wind up displayed in prominent places here.
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It reminds this column a little of what happened with Festival 2018 – the Commonwealth Games Arts and Culture program organised by the state government.
The festival brought artists from all over the country to the Gold Coast, while many locals missed out. The result? A damp squib that saw “disappointingly small” crowds turn out as locals gave the event a miss.
In all of these cases, locals have largely been overlooked. They shouldn’t be. There is no shortage of great talent in this city.
Their work is all around us. Only last weekend, your columnist spotted a stunning piece hanging behind the reception of the Mercure Gold Coast Resort in Carrara. Upon inquiring, I learnt that it was painted by Worongary artist Janelle McQueen.
One wonders if Ms McQueen’s connection with the area is part of the reason her art has such resonance.
Also created by a local was probably the Gold Coast’s most popular public artwork, the Kirra Eagle, which was crafted by Coolangatta artist Craig Medson in 1984.
Before his sad passing in 2015, Mr Medson wrote his aim was “to create sculptures that emit an aura of beauty, of harmony, balance and peace” – something he certainly achieved at Kirra.
Can we say the Yatala lights achieved anything similar?
The point is a simple one: commissioning work from elsewhere has been a monumental failure. The next time council or its agencies go looking for major public artworks, they should give local artists who know and love this city a go.
Or is that too much like “good sense”?
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